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While the moon was out for my early morning trip, there were also high thin clouds cutting down on the light. The weather map showed some sort of storminess to the east which we'd somehow missed. But was calm (and mosquitoes out!) so was easy to hear first Oblong and then Castle finally have an eruption. That was the first in about 30 hours, and for the first ten minutes ago it acted like it was going to be another minor. The sound would completely cease for about 5 seconds, then Castle would have another noisy surge.

One thing I hadn't had so far this trip was a short nighttime Grand wait. Being out there for 3 or 4 hours is not only tiring, but usually means that I don't get as much sleep as I probably need. (Yes, sitting in the cold takes effort.). So it was a bit of a relief that I only had to wait two Turban intervals for this early morning's one burst eruption.

There was a plane circling the area, waiting for an Old Faithful eruption. At the same time, Grand began to show signs that it might erupt. As Old Faithful started, I mentioned that I hoped that Grand might hold off long enough that they'd see Grand in the rear-view mirrors (if any). And that's exactly what happened. As the plane disappeared to the north, the several minutes of waves finally resulted in Vent beginning to overflow. And given that Grand had a two burst eruption, it was an all-around nice eruption.

I really need to remember that I do have a camera with me. Otherwise I'd have a picture of the bison that walked within 20 feet of the boardwalk right after the Grand eruption. It proceeded on directly toward West Triplet, only changing course when it encounter the steam from the eruption and the water. It showed a bit of agitation from that encounter, then calmly continued on toward Spasmodic.

On the walk back, saw an eruption of Tilt for the first time this trip. (That's "Tilt Geyser", not "Tilt's Baby", by the way). Have seen the vent empty several times, so it might be fairly frequent, on the order of several times per day.

In the evening it seemed unlikely that Grand would erupt before sunset. Turns out that right about sunset West Triplet started. After that, when there still would have been quite a bit of light, there was a delay and so Grand waited two more Turban eruptions and ended up erupting just before any light was gone completely. A second burst, if it had happened, would have been hard to see.

Grand seems to have fallen into a nice little routine. There's an attempt at erupting at around the 6.5 hour mark, then it waits the three or so hours before it's time for the next eruption of West Triplet. The resulting eruptions a one burst that's just short enough that a second burst is possible but unlikely.

At least that's what we got in the morning.

Castle's predicted time came and went, and all it did for the rest of the day was slop.

Mid-day decided that might Iwant to do the Geyser Hill death wait for this visit, and instead got Beehive's Indicator within 15 minutes. Was quite windy, and no matter where I tried to be, the wind seemed to be coming directly over Beehive. So picked a spot and hunkered down when the drops came, which was mostly in the last minute or so of the eruption.

In the evening realized that if Grand didn't go short, that would put the eruption just before sunset, which is great time for an eruption. I hadn't had one at that time of day yet. Just as long as it didn't delay so long that it was dark. Arrived to find a wet West Triplet and Penta in the middle of a long eruption. The Turban activity proceeded as usual this past week, then we got an appearance of water in Vent and a slight overlfow. Fortunately, long Vent delays are uncommon, and this one was just three Turbans. When it came time for Grand to erupt, the pool filled early and stayed up, flooding the formations. Conditions might have been a little better, as the rainbows were a bit hard to see, but definitely there.

In years past, when Grand actually had multiple bursts and one burst eruptions were rare, some of us would jokingly start yelling or asking for Grand to stop. Because we knew that the subsequent bursts were the best part of the show. This evening it was Mike Keller's daughters who were making the "stop" pleas, and they were rewarded with just that at around 9m30s. Perfect time for a second burst, which we also got.

With Rift having erupted well before Grand, I thought that if there was any chance of an early eruption, this might be it. So headed out early, but not too early, As it turned out, with the full moon, it was an interesting night, no thanks to Grand.

When I arrived just before midnight, I was greeted by Percolator. This is the first time I've noticed Percolator unrelated to current activity by either Rift or West Triplet. It's annoying at night because it makes just enough noise to make listening for other features a bit harder. And the steady breeze didn't help the hearing situation much either. But I did hear an eruption of Old Faithful just fine, perhaps because I was downwind.

As usual, I took the first couple of Turban intervals to check out the Sawmill group. Nothing much of interest, although Sawmill was erupting, At midnight West Triplet started, but Grand show inclination to erupt with it.

So I had just settled in when I noticed a new large cloud, an eruption of Fan & Mortar had started. I'd had the radio off, but a quick check showed that no one was down there, and there are people who do leave the radio on all night.

In the other direction Bulger started an eruption. After a minute it was apparent that it was a major,and time to go down and see what sort of activity was going on in Bulger's Hole. I got there just in time to see the water start to fill, and was rewarded with a nice 3m38 long eruption by MagLite. The bridge is still intact.

I settled back in to waiting and in quick succession got eruptions Riverside, Daisy, and Churn. Then a long series of indifferent Turban eruptions, with both intervals and durations showing not variations or even hinting of any eruption possibilities. Mixed in was an Oblong, which is always impressive by moonlight by the size and height of the steam column, and its distinctive sound.

After a few hours I was suddenly not alone. I saw a small shape running across the runoff sheet between Grand and me. Got out the MagLite again, and it was a coyote quickly trotting off to the north. That's the first time I've ever encountered a coyote out there at night, and a bit surprised one would come so close to me.

It was finally time for another West Triplet eruption, well over three hours since the previous one. By this time Turban had finally shortened its intervals to about 16 minutes, and the durations were oscillating between a bit over 3 minutes and about 4-and-a-half. Turban started the eruption, and unlike several other eruptions the past few days, it was obvious that Grand was quickly going to join in.

Nice by moonlight, with the breeze pushing the steam away, it would've been a nice to finally have a second burst. (Since I arrived, there have been only a couple of two burst eruptions, one when I was distracted by Bulger's Hole.)
West Triplet joined in, and I also got to get an interval on Daisy.

Also during the wait I noticed a large, noisy steamcloud down near the river at the base of Grand's middle runoff channel. In years past I remember there being active features down there, but due to its position, it's difficult to evaluate what might be going on down there.

It turned out that the West Triplet I saw start preceded a Rift eruption, so mid-day's wait was another one of those where it's just a matter of waiting for West Triplet to recover. A less than 10 hour interval, again without much to distinguish any of the Turban activity. Followed by another one burst Grand. At this point I've seen sixteen eruptions and fourteen of them have been one burst. I'm beginning to believe that in a few years I'll have seem my last multi-burst eruption.

During the three hour wait Bulger did absolutely nothing. The formations were dry and gray the whole time. Seems like a long time without even a minor. Over in the Sawmill Group there was a Tardy cycle that came and went.

Went out for the next Grand at sunset, and walked up on West Triplet in eruption and Grand in heavy overflow. The overflow turned into a delay, and West Triplet ended shortly after. Castle erupted, but it appeared that none of the crowd came over toward Grand. For the next three hours we got the usual long Grand interval.

Because it was bright from the moon, were about a dozen at around midnight, when we finally got another West Triplet. Grand showed signs of life, but Rift started at midnight. Fortunately, Grand showed that it could erupt with those other two also erupting. The evening was dead calm, and so Grand put out a nice base surge that rolled almost to the boardwalk. But that calm also meant that it was almost impossible to see the eruption, especially with al the steam being produced to the southeast. But the pause for the second burst was just enough time to clear out the worst of it on the northern side, and we got a nice, huge backlit burst. That made up for all the waiting around we'd just had.

The morning Grand was sort of the same wait as the night before. Gtand waited for West Triplet, but this time, instead of sunset, it was the moon that set just before the eruption. (Well, the sky was so light that it didn't matter, but still…) The eruption itself was another long one burst.

A few hours later we got a Beehive with a nice wind direction for once, meaning that I didn't really need to bring the umbrella. (The difference in brightness of the sky above and below the rainbow is natural phenomena called "Alexander's Dark Band", and is because the light that should be there is forming the rainbow(s).)

The afternoon Grand eruption was all around disappointing. Instead of following the Grand eruption, it waited 6 hours. Given that the Rift eruption only lasted about an hour, it was disappointing for not only Grand to wait four more hours, but for West Triplet to start erupting right after another long one burst eruption.

Today was the first of this visit in which there wasn't even a hint of possible rain.

Was walking past Sawmill after a recent Grand eruption and heard a girl say, "it smells just like Granma's house". Which is more than I ever want to know about "granma" and her hours."

After several relatively short intervals, with and without Rift erupting, decided that I should try to get out for the morning eruption as early as seemed reasonable. The day also looked like it would starting out just like yesterday. Except it went from one extreme to another. Grand had a delay overflow when I got out there, and then proceeded to delay close to four hours, finally erupting one hour into a Rift eruption. At least the weather was mostly dry. (We did get some droplets from a mystery cloud a couple of times.)

The evening wait was another long but eventful one. When I went out, there was a nice large gray cloud to the south. Looking at the weather maps, it appeared that it was a small cell, and the center of it was due south. So I figured that while we'd get some rain, we'd avoid the worst.

I was right about that. Most of the time it was sunny, even when raining, and there was often a nice full double rainbow.Only once did it get intense enough to be annoying.

Towards the end of the rain, suddenly there was yelping from coyotes up on the hillside behind Rift and toward solitary. The first I've heard this year. Unlike other times, this noise didn't stop, and after a bit it became apparent that they were moving down the hillside. Finally a pair appeared over in the Sawmill group, still yelping, and headed for the bridge. Which they crossed and passed on over toward the interchange. The noise continued for a good half hour. Never heard anything like that before.

The geyser activity during the wait was the usual, a Daisy and an Oblong, and the unusual, an eruption of Penta. Until the previous one I saw, this one did not last more that 45 minutes. All during the wait I never noticed any activity from Bulger, neither major or minor eruptions.

Grand itself just sort of sat there. Unlike in the morning, there were never any delays or failed attempts to erupt. West Triplet was empty the whole time, still not having recovered from the Rift eruption hours ealier. Finally when West Triplet started to show water, and once the sun had disappeared behind the ridge, was when Grand erupted.

It was another one burst, a long 12 minute one punctuated with a couple of false pauses at around the 10 and 11 minute marks. Right after the eruption, West Triplet started, and I noticed the moon rising. Time to go in.

After the short overnight interval I thought there was a chance of another short interval. But I wasn't expecting to be in the parking lot thinking I should be heading out when Grand started. The only thing short intervals do is make it harder to get sleep. In this case, it really wasn't even worth the effort of zipping on out.

That also messed my plans, such as they were, for the day. I was expecting various waits on Grand and Beehive to be split up by an hour or two available for other things.

By the time to go out to Grand, the weather radar map showed a small cell headed this way. Sure enough, for one Turban interval we got pelted with a strong wind with lots of rain and a little bit of hail. Fortunately, the first Bulger major eruption took place before that, and during that time Bulger's Hole only filled and drained.

After the storm, we got a second Bulger major. This time the Hole did't pay around with filling and dropping,but almost immediately began bubbling. The eruption itself lasted 5 minutes, and ended a little after Bulger did. The bridge is still there, but I'll be pleasantly surprised if it lasts long.

So Grand erupted under relatively calm sunny conditions, and proceeded to give us another one burst eruption.

The weather was nice and clear with a bright moon for the next eruption. Grand had a chance for a four-Grand day, but only managed to have three intervals in just less than 24 hours. Grand had to wait for the eruption of West Triplet to finish, it appears. The Grand eruption started 2m23s after Turban. After the first couple of minutes, the steam over Grand's pool just didn't look right, even though Turban wasn't all that vigorous. The slight breeze pushed the steam away, allowing for a beautiful pair of bursts.

While waiting for Grand, saw a couple of Bulger major eruptions, but in neither case did I see any sign of even steam coming from Bulger's Hole.

After the rain last night, I expected it to be foggy, and I was right. From what I could tell in the cabin area, it was clear and cloudless, with bright stars,. Just as I approached the front of the Lodge, I heard an eruption of Old Faithful start. I couldn't seen much in all the steam. When I dropped down the hill in front of the Inn, I was in the think of the fog. Out at Grand I could barely make out the lights of the Inn.

I arrived at Grand just in time for the end of another Rift eruption. Through the fog, I heard an eruption of Riverside, but that was as the day slowly brightened. Over at Bulger there were occasional minors. When Beehive erupted, I could hear it easily, but all I could see was a thickness int he fog over Geyser Hill.

As with yesterday, it took Grand several hours before I finally recovered from Rift. This time the one burst eruption, instead of being around 11 to 12 minutes long, didn't even reach 9 minutes.

After that, it was a bit of a surprise that by 10:30 there was a noisy storm moving in. Inside the cabin there were quite a few times that the whole cabin shook, and the echoes seemed to last close to a minute. We even lost power for several minutes. The storm took 4 hours to go though, but fortunately I was able to spend it all indoors. As the time to go out to Grand approached, the rained died down and the sky began to lighten.

Expected a short interval, but got a longer one instead. Grand waited until well after the end of an eruption of West Triplet. The only real item of interest was that Churn erupted twice during the wait.

I also think that Bulger's Hole erupted during the storm. The bridge at the front of the vent hole seems narrower, and there were rocks strewn about, including one on the end of the bridge, that I didn't remember seeing there earlier today.

Got out to Grand before midnight to discover that Rift had not only erupted, but had also finished. A good sign. The sky was mostly clear, and the few clouds didn't obscure the bright moon. In the next half hour I got to see Oblong, Daisy and Castle. The last one seemed to have attracted a sizable contingent of yelling morons, but fortunately they stayed there well into the steam phase and never came over to bother me.

After about another hour, I heard Bulger erupting, and it became apparent that this was a major. I went over and found that the Hole was filing up. Unfortunately, it never erupted. As it was now time for Turban I started heading back, and caught the start of Grand.

A steamy eruption, but clear enough that seeing Vent start was easy. A disappointing eruption, it being another one of those less than 10 minute one burst eruptions.

Today started out as a continuation of yesterday. I decided to forego the middle of the night Grand eruption and instead catch up on sleep, Besides the night was supposed to be cloudy and I didn't relish a three hour wait in the dark. As it turned out, I wouldn't have had much wait at all.

Woke up around 06:00 and I was just starting to post the photos and report on yesterday when the call for an event at Fan & Mortar came in around 06:30.
So I finished up and header over to the store parking lot to continue on down basin on the bike.

I arrived to nice, consistent activity by the High and Gold Vents. Within a few minutes the Angle vent joined in, and unlike yesterday's event, the activity did not show any sign of weakening. Instead, it steadily increased until around 07:10, by which time we had the High vent erupting to about 4 meters, continuously. By the only question was how would the eruption start.

Since my phone has video capability, I shot some shaky footage of the start. It began with extended play by Upper Mortar for about 10 seconds. Just as it looked like it might die down, Lower Mortar showed water, and at almost the same time water gushed out of Fan's Main and East vents.

The conditions were ideal. Because of the overcast, the night wasn't as cold as it could have been, and the sun had been up long enough to remove any other chill, and to provide excellent lighting. There was absolutely no wind, and surprisingly, no mosquitoes. During the eruption I never needed to use my umbrella or raingear, and with the steam cloud going straight up, all of the rainbows were easily visible.

Following that, decided time to head out to Grand, just in case it pulled a short interval. A guess as to the eruption time based on overflow pretty much matched the time from the monitor. Except it turned out to be a long wait. One with Rift ending and Grand still not showing any signs of trying to erupt. When Grand did erupt, we got an eruption like yesterday, one nearly 12 minutes long.

During the wait we did see an eruption of Churn. Not sure why, as Sawmill was active. Bulger was having minor eruptions, but no major eruptions, and the people who watched it for all that time said that the hole never showed any signs of activity.

So after that, it was time to head in. Knowing that there wasn't much going on until evening (except for the possibility of Beehive), I took the opportunity to perform other chores, like take a nap.

To get to the Beehive eruption, one had to negotiate another bison gauntlet. This time the three of them were bedding down over by Little Squirt and Silver and Bronze, but just close enough to make me hesitate before quickly passing by. The Beehive eruption itself was well behaved for the first half, until the wind shifted. I tried to hunker down next to the railing under my umbrella, but after a bit I gave up and moved on. Rather than run the bison gauntlet a second time, I took the opportunity to walk around Geyser Hll.

The sky had clouded up by the to head out to the evening Grand. It was extremely windy, but I did get out there before the first shower started. Nothing too much, about ten minutes long with a little hail mixed in.

Grand erupted about 15 seconds before the delay would have officially started.As it was, it was just a short one burst, and I was able to head in while it was still a little light, and before the really heavy rain (and thunder and lightning) started.

The rock wall at Aurum may be intended to hide the monitor's wire, but it seems to instead call even more attention to itself. Surely a better job could be done here, and in several other places where the monitors and their wires are obvious. Of like at West Triplet, exposed.

Before I got checked in, I did get to see a nice Beehive from the overlook, and Castle had another minor eruption.

So when I headed out for the evening Grand eruption, the first thing I saw when I got out to the bikerack at Castle was Rift in eruption. By the time I got over there, it was obvious that West Triplet had been quiet for a bit. This gave the false hope that the end of Rift might be soon. While waiting, Sputnik was quite active, with some of the eruptions as much as 1 meter high.

About the same time it was noticed that there were a couple of bison to the north, near the boardwalk by Wave Spring. The slowly moseyed along and one of them settled down right next to the boardwalk near Shoe Spring. This did not deter visitors from using the walkway, getting close-up pictures of the bison, and in at least one case, stepping off the boardwalk to be part of a picture. The bison, fortunately, ignored them all.

When I passed through, I also noticed that the Sawmill Group had nice high water levels, and about 45 minutes later it was noticed that Penta was in a full eruption. With Rift still going, I took the opportunity to head down to see it between Turban eruptions.

That's when things got interesting. On the way back from my second visit, I saw Bulger start After about a minute or so, it had all the indications that this was going to be a major eruption. I hadn't seen any minors before that.

It was hard to tell with the lighting, but it seemed that the amount of steam in the hole had increased, and I thought I saw water. At 3 minutes into Bulger's eruption, it was obvious that the hole was full to about 15cm below the rim. The water stayed at that level for about 30 to 45 seconds, then dropped.

About 30 seconds after that, the hole refilled, and five minutes into the Bulger eruption, the water on the left side of the hole started bursting.

The eruption lasted about 2 minutes. Most of the activity was forced through the small hole that has recently formed in the sinter shelf about the hole. Though there it seemed that there were thrown a number of rocks by the milky white water. The steam made it hard to tell what was going on inside the hole itself, but there were definite small bursts in the area where I first noticed the start of the eruption. Bulger itself continued to erupt for another 45 seconds or so, with a total eruption duration of 8m07s.

In the middle of all that, Turban started and was quickly followed by an eruption of Grand. While I missed the start of Turban and Vent and the end of Rift, we did get a nice second burst and an eruption of Daisy. Seemed like everything was erupting at once.

After that, I decided to stick around the Sawmill Group, to see if there might be more Bulger related activity, and to get a duration for Penta. During the second visit to Penta, I noticed that Spasmodic actually seemed higher than before, and wondered if this might be one of those very long Penta eruptions.

After 49 minutes, which seems short, Bulger had a another major eruption. Once again, after about 1.5 minutes the hole showed water for about 30-45 seconds, drained and refilled. This time though, there was no eruption.

But there was an eruption of Churn. Again, not surprising with the long Penta duration, which at this point had been erupting for about 90 minutes. All of the features in the Sawmill Group were high. Oval was having periodic pulsations, and Sawmill was bubbling nicely in a high pool.

There was a second Churn 27 minutes later, and about 4 minutes after a kind of false start where Churn bubbled and surge up to 0.5 meter for about 15 seconds.

By that time Penta had been erupting for over two hours. The bugs were starting to get nasty, and it had been a long day, and I decided that Penta could quit on its own, so I headed in.

At Penta before Grand I got to see the naturalist who seems to be this year's Dixy. There several people sitting along the boardwalk, with their feet on the old paving stones, watching the eruption, as we have all done at some time or another. He requested that they stop doing that. Next, he went on down to Grand, and seemed to be studiously avoiding notice of the bison to the north. Finally he couldn't ignore it any longer, and went up there to keep an eye on things.

After the Grand eruption, the bison were on the move again. Since the bison were wandering near the boardwalk, he kept herding all the people there toward Sawmill, instead of just waiting calmly for them to pass. The bison just followed their usual path at the base of the hillside. The last I saw of them they went behind Spasmodic and headed into that swamp. Dixy hung around for a while, then followed them toward Geyser Hill.

I got through Pinedale with about 4 minutes to spare.

Never have really cared for coming in from the South Entrance, so decided to try something different this trip. Even though it would be longer drive, come in via US 191, go over Teton Pass and then head for Ashton via state routes in Idaho. Encountered new and different things because of that.

Only active construction was on the the whole portion of US 20 in Montana, all 12 miles of it. Even though they were striping the lanes on a Saturday afternoon, were using pilot cars and letting traffic stack up (almost a mile long line westbound.) On one stretch of 191 were replacing large culverts under the highway and routing traffic on temporary diversions.

But the real fun began when I approached downtown Pinedale. Suddenly the streets were lined with people and there were old horsedrawn wagons and other paraphernalia. On a side street I noticed what  looked like a rendevouz of mountain men. Suddenly realized that there must be a parade today. The time was 10:56, and right after I got through the gauntlet, I noticed in the rear-view mirror that a police car with flashing lights was now blocking traffic. My timing could easily have been much worse.

In Victor, Idaho, was a gathering of "classic" cars. One of the traffic lanes was coned off and all sorts of cars were parked along the curb, but I didn't see signs of any impending closure. All the rest of my way through Idaho I noticed old cars (including one that probably needed a tow) in the oncoming lanes.

Shown on the map north of Victor are a series of braided streams. Because of there is still heavy runoff from the mountains nearby, there were several miles of flooded roads. Only a few inches deep, they had posted 25mph and you just rooster tailed your way through. (I found 15mph worked better.)

The drive in this morning had further entertainments. As I passed the Mallard Creek Trailhead turnout, just north of the Upper Basin, at around 06:00, I noticed that there were a couple of motorcycles there. Interesting, as not a place you normally see motorcycles that time of day. Then I noticed why. Next the the pavement was a green pop-up tent. I guess the morning patrol had not yet passed that way.

The Grand this morning seemed like an appropriate greeting. A Grand initiated one burst that lasted 12m03s. Then Vent and Turban paused for about 14 minutes, tried and failed to restart, waiting another 7 minutes before their activity began.

After that, visited Daisy to see how bad Splendid looked. Water is no longer finding its way over from Comet, so there are no runoff channels to the north. I didn't get around to the south side as there were three bison lying down from north of Daisy to near Bonita to near the south trail.  When Daisy erupted, it got the attention of the first one. That bison got up and started moving, only to stop in the middle of Daisy's runoff. There it left a rather liquid opinion and then move over to join the other two.

Fan & Mortar had a nice event around noon-time, but this early in the interval it wasn't surprising that nothing much came of it. I went down there earlier in the day, and got to see a new Stupid Bureaucrat Trick. There was an official Suburban parked well south of the Pit of Eternal Stench, in a gravel patch surrounded by trees. I guess someone out performing their official duties wanted to be in the shade, or got the genius idea that a vehicle wouldn't be as noticeable over there.

Sat and watch an interval from one major eruption of Bulger to another. The interval was about 1h40m. Didn't see any activity, but noticed a few things. It's hard to see in the photo, but off to the left, at the edge of the sinter sheet, was a patch of steaming ground. Also, it appears the dripping from within the hole is due to water from a major seeping into the sinter, as it was strongest after the end of the majors and almost gone at the start  I would guess that it also is more in the mornings than in the afternoons when the water would tend to evaporate. So, for the first time in years, will be keeping an eye on Bulger and noting eruption times.

Finally got checked in in time to head out for the evening Grand eruption. What happened out there will be in part 2.

I learned today that if you are going to do something really, really stupid, it's best to do it on the last day of the trip when it'll just be an inconvenience instead of a catastrophe

The day started out with a damp wait at Grand. Some of the thickest geyser fog I've seen this trip, which occasionally got swept away by a strong breeze. Grand itself was steamy, hard to see.

After that I rode down to find that Fan & Mortar did erupt overnight as expected. Based on the amount of activity from the vents, I wouldn't be surprised that it happened right after I left Grand the night before. (Not that I wanted to be in that weather.

Following that did get to see a nice Beehive eruption from the overlook. An eruption whose significance became apparent later in the day.

The afternoon Grand took place just as a small but windy storm was clearing out. One Turban eruption later and we'd have had sunshine and much less wind. And we didn't even get the compensation of a second burst.

I used the lull before an Old Faithful eruption to go to the Lodge Cafeteria to get some food. I was just finishing up when the call that Beehive's Indicator had started. This was a bit of a surprise, as it was only 10 hours since the morning eruption. So I finished my meal, went back to the cabin to get a raincoat and umbrella, and sauntered over to Geyser Hill.

Where I got to see the first false Indicator in quite a while. 65 minutes of it. Beehive stopped splashing and trying at about the 35 minute mark. So now the question becomes, will Beehive have an eruption with the next Indicator eruption, making this an interesting and annoying exception, or does this mean that this morning I saw the last Beehive eruption of the summer?

Turns out that leaving Sawmill Group last night was right decision, as Penta marker was still in place when came out before dawn. Once again, water levels there were high, but I didn't stick around. About half hour later heard to load thumps of a high pool Sawmill start.

After the morning Grand eruption, headed down to Fan & Mortar for a few hours of garbage mode, although i think I arrived at the end of a minor event. At least it never looked as good during my wait as it did when I arrived.

After breakfast, there was finally a report of an event at Fan & Mortar. This was Mortar dominated, with the activity of the Fan vents never looking good, but we did get one surge from Mortar that could've grown into a full eruption.

Following that, it was about time for Grand, but Rift had also just started. When II had returned as far as Castle, I had a decision. Based on past behavior, that meant about a three hour wait, but on the other hand, I had no reason to head any further in. So decided to head over to Grand.

That proved to be the right decision, as within minutes of arrival, the pool on Grand was full with waves. Unlike so many recent eruptions, Grand initiated this one, and we got a nice two burst eruption with Rift sputter away over on the side, on a less than 7 hour interval.

Following that, the Sawmill Group was high with Sawmill quiet. Some bubbling from Penta's lower vents was enough to get me to stick around. (That I'd been prepared to stay out a few hours was a factor, too.) All the pools continued to rise, and finally we got a good, doming surge over Penta's bottom vents, but no eruption. Expected that the next good surge should be the one which started the eruption, instead looked over and saw Sawmill boiling and doming up. Time to head in.

I was starting to get ready to go out to Grand when the next call for an event at Fan & Mortar came over the radio. It was good timing, as I figured that no matter what happened, I could then go directly to Grand. As it turned out that while the surging from Lower Mortar looked promising, when Fan came back on it never really looked all that good. So it was off to Grand.

Even heading out to Fan & Mortar the sky looked ugly. At Grand I got to experience possibly the worst conditions I've ever encountered that didn't involve precipitation. While there was no rain, it was dark and there was a strong wind from the north that had to have gusts at or above 40 mph. But it only lasted about 20 minutes, and by the time Grand erupted, it was relatively calm.

That eruption started with one of the most explosive Turban starts I've seen. It suddenly and without warning threw a plume of water sideways at least 15 feet high. It was getting dark, making the steamy pool hard to see, but just based on that I figured we were about to get Grand. And I was right. The second burst was also sort of a bonus, as the first burst was nearly 11 minutes long. But thanks to the wind, which had been picking up during the first burst, it wasn't all that impressive.

The wind was picking up because another storm was moving in, but fortunately, I was back in the cabin by the time it started to get wet.

I noticed when I was riding my bike on the service road behind the Inn in order to make the previous day's posting that there was a freshly flattened tree rat on the pavement. Coming back ten minutes later, the carcass was gone. Those ravens work fast.

Like the night before, the possibility of an eruption of Grand just as it was getting dark turned into an after-midnight eruption. I arrived just as West Triplet started, and Rift joined right in a half hour later. Unlike the night before, this time it was mostly clear (just the usual clouds far to the north and south) and calm.

The predicted aurora never materialized. As the sky darkened, the area to the north seemed to remain bright, but as midnight approached, it too finally became dark, and then the eastern sky began to lighten slightly as the moon rose. There was a little light on the top of Grand's steam column during the eruption, but it really didn't help make anything more visible.

In the morning, we had yet another long interval at Grand. At least we were rewarded with the second three burst eruption in two days. Was a long pause between the second and third, so it didn't surprise me when Vent and Turban quit after.

With the next Fan & Mortar window approaching, I spent an hour down there, watching garbage, although there was some Upper Mortar rumbling with water visible down in the vent, and steaming from the Frying Pan. (It's amazing how large that vent has become. No way that water would have been visible even ten years ago.)

Grand was set up for a sunset eruption, but when West Triplet's eruption led into the start of Rift, I figured I'd be seeing it in the dark. So it was a pleasant surprise to have it start on the last possible Turban eruption, just as Rift was ending. The only drawback was that there wasn't a second burst, but the lighting during the eruption, along with a breeze out of the north, gave us full arc rainbows which ended in Sawmill on the right end.

Beehive's Indicator was announced just before the Grand eruption, and thanks to the long Indicators we've had lately, I was able to seen the entire Grand eruption, and leisurely walk all the way to the overlook at Crested Pool. Too bad the sun had already set by then.

Along the ways I noticed that the Sawmill Group was again full, and in Tardy Mode. It had been that way when I came out to Grand, but after about 20 minutes, Spasmodic shut off and the system drained. I probably should have stuck around, but getting some sleep seemed a higher priority.